flurry; confusion, upset, excitement; hubbub, noise, turmoil. Ado,to-do,commotion,stir,tumult suggest a great deal of fuss and noise. Ado implies a confused bustle of activity, a considerable emotional upset, and a great deal of talking: Much Ado About Nothing.To-do, now more commonly used, may mean merely excitement and noise and may be pleasant or unpleasant: a great to-do over a movie star.Commotion suggests a noisy confusion and babble: commotion at the scene of an accident.Stir suggests excitement and noise, with a hint of emotional cause: The report was followed by a tremendous stir in the city.Tumult suggests disorder with noise and violence: a tumult as the mob stormed the Bastille.

late 14c., "conflict, fighting; difficulty, trouble," compounded from at do, dialectal in Norse influenced areas of England for to do, as some Scandinavian languages used at with infinitive of a verb where Modern English uses to. For sense development, cf. to-do. Meaning "fuss" is from early 15c. Also used in Middle English for "dealings, traffic," and "sexual intercourse" (both c.1400).